I was called by an internal recruiter. That conversation was very brief and to the point. He asked simple questions about things like my willingness to travel, working in an office - very general. I was told I was a "good fit" and that my resume would be sent to the hiring manager.
Several days later I spoke with the hiring manager over the phone. The conversation went well. He asked generic sales performance related questions, (my success in achieving sales quotas, hunter vs farmer? Ans: always hunter, never farmer, ability to work as part of a team, etc). All very straight forward and direct. I was invited to come into the office in San Francisco to interview with the team, (Channel manager, SE and the hiring manager again).
The interviews with the Channel Manager and SE went well. They confirmed they would recommend me to the hiring manager. The interview with the hiring manager didn't go so well. I had the definite impression he had another agenda. He asked me lots of questions about how I would handle many different situations - all leading to the unmistakable conclusion that he was looking for a person who could manage complex, time consuming sales cycles in Fortune 100 companies.
Finally at the end of the conversation I tried to close him for the position when he told me he was looking for someone who had more of a "transactional" sales background, (a complete opposite of the questions he was asking). I felt I'd be duped. Afterward I received no feedback one way or the other. No one communicated anything about my application, which I felt was pretty unprofessional.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time when you've had to manage and engage multiple layers of your organization into the prospect's company when trying to close a complex enterprise sale.
